A Ledger Blog

Ian Nance gets to hunt and then write about it

The latest update from the South Florida Deer Research Project has been released. 8 more collared deer were eaten. 7 by suspected panthers. 1 by an unknown predator. Survival Monitoring – During this quarter, we investigated 8 (5 females, 3 males) deer mortalities. – The mortalities were categorized as panther predation events and one unknown predator. In some instances, we cannot definitively eliminate the possibility of scavenging, and the causes of all mortality data should be considered preliminary until all… Read More »

April through June 2017 was a tumultuous weather period in Florida. Drought conditions at the start of this update were doused by June’s deluges. Portions of South Florida received too much water, and the annual debate on water control policy has resumed in all its vigor. But, how did this swing affect panther predations on the area’s deer? I don’t know. Can’t glean that off this update. Hopefully, this study will illuminate and answer questions like this at its conclusion.… Read More »

On March 13th, in a post regarding the Endangered Species Act, I wrote: “The Florida panther is a different animal, as I’ve written about many times now. Their current base in Southwest Florida is at capacity, as residents will attest. Young males wander from this region and throughout the state, but so far no documented breeding activity has taken place north of the Caloosahatchee. My guess is, trail cameras will reveal this a moot point in the not-so-distant future…but will… Read More »

Been noticing on Facebook recently hunters in South Florida ramping up deer scouting activities. Hard as it is to believe, archery season for deer in Zone A will kick off July 30th on private lands with different WMA’s opening as August proceeds. Why such the early season in the despair of this heat? Well, the rutting activity in South Florida takes place before most anywhere else in the state or the U.S. Responding to hunters’ requests to be in woods… Read More »

I just signed up for the hunting program at Avon Park Air Force Range though I noticed they didn’t have an antlerless season last year. Another place I hunt regularly, Duette Preserve, stopped issuing doe tags to rifle hunters a few years ago. In 2015, DMU-A1 in South Florida only allowed antlerless harvest by permit while other DMU’s curtailed the length of their doe seasons, too. This is all tough on me because I truly value venison in my freezer… Read More »

Rain was certainly an issue in South Florida during the 1st Quarter of 2016. The total measured rainfall for Big Cypress National Park in January 2016 was 9.6 inches. The long-term average is 1.5 inches. Will this have an impact on deer numbers going forward? Or, was this a minor blip in the life of these animals? There’s no mention of the flooding in this update – perhaps in the final report. Still, those in the know acknowledge that periods… Read More »

Turkey hunt long enough and you’ll run into predators. Being Spring and making turkey-like noises, it’s a cinch to have a coyote or bobcat or fox come snooping. Decoys are sometimes even attacked. While these incidents are always thrilling, hunters in South Florida are increasingly having run-ins with larger hungry critters. It’s been eleven years since I hunted turkeys in traditional panther territory on private land in SW Florida. Sadly, I never spotted one, but others in camp told fire-side… Read More »

About This Blog

Ian Nance is a lifelong resident of Central Florida with a passion for hunting and just about anything related. Associate Member of the Florida Outdoor Writers Association. Check back weekly for hunting stories, news, tips, and wild game recipes. Feel free to leave comments or e-mail topics you would like to see addressed here. Contact at inance880@aol.com or follow on Twitter @good_hunt